Dehydration While Breastfeeding - 4 Causes, 7 Symptoms & 4 Treatments You Should Be Aware Of

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Do you often feel dehydrated while breastfeeding? Are you anxious about your health condition? Don’t worry yourself silly just yet! Read our post and get the relevant information about dehydration while breastfeeding, its causes, and curative measures.

Breastfeeding Dehydration:

Breastfeeding dehydration often occurs in first time mothers. It may happen due to several reasons like medications or improper health conditions. Fortunately, the problem of dehydration is curable, and all you need to do is enhance your fluid intake. However, sometimes you may need to consume specific medications to overcome the condition. (1)

Signs Of Dehydration While Breastfeeding:

If you face dehydration during lactation, chances are your milk secretion will take a hit. Here we list some of the commonly appearing symptoms of dehydration:

Muscle cramp

Lighter Breasts

Dizziness

Fatigue

Headache

Dry mouth

Nausea (2)

[ Read: Symptoms Of Thrush During Breastfeeding ]

Causes Of Dehydration When

Breastfeeding:

Apart from consuming too little water, there are many reasons for dehydration. Here we list some of the common causes of dehydration in lactating mothers, which include:

1. Diarrhea Or Food Poisoning:

Consuming contaminated or unhealthy food may lead to food poisoning or diarrhea during lactation. Typically, the symptoms of these critical diseases are the loss of fluids and electrolytes from the mother’s body. (3)

[ Read: Effects Of Caffeine While Breastfeeding ]

2. Insufficient Fluid Intake:

As a breastfeeding mom, your baby occupies most of your time. Sometimes, you forget to drink the adequate amount of water or fluids. Less water in the diet is one of the most obvious causes of dehydration.

3. Fasting:

During the lactation phase, it is extremely harmful to practice fasting. You need to include healthy and nutritious foods in your daily diet, to enhance the milk secretion. Fasting can also lead to dehydration in lactating mothers. (4)

[ Read: Impact Of Fasting While Breastfeeding ]

4. Consuming Caffeinated Drinks:

Remember, that you need to avoid your daily cup of tea or coffee, as excess caffeine in the diet can lead to dehydration.

[ Read: Green Tea While Breastfeeding ]

Treating Dehydration While Breastfeeding:

Typically, a proper diet regime and a healthy lifestyle are the best ways to treat dehydration during pregnancy. But, it has its drawbacks. Some of the effective treatments for dehydration during breastfeeding include:

Drink lots of water and other nutritious fluids like fruit juices. The excess fluid will boost milk secretion and hydrate your body. As a breastfeeding mom, you need to drink about 13 cups of fluids every day. (5)

A regular intake of nutritious and watery foods like watermelon, oranges, cucumber or tomato helps fulfill your body’s fluid requirement. These foods will help you overcome dehydration.

If you suffer from severe vomiting or diarrhea, consult a doctor and consume some oral-re-hydration solution, to prevent the problem of dehydration.

If your dehydration does not seem to get better, you need to visit the doctor immediately. Your doctor will know what medications to prescribe you.

When To Visit A Doctor?

If you suffer from prolonged health conditions, or dizziness, headaches, weakness or fatigue due to dehydration, you may need to visit the doctor and take IV fluids to rehydrate your body quickly and safely. In such circumstances, visit your gynecologist and ask her to prescribe you medications immediately. Before you consume any electrolyte solution like Infalyte or Pedialyte, consult your doctor.

You need to get appropriate information about dehydration treatments, as it can be extremely crucial. You can adopt a healthier lifestyle than earlier to prevent the onset of dehydration during the lactation phase.

Hope you liked our post on dehydration and breastfeeding. Have you been suffering from the dehydration during lactation? What health difficulties did you face? How did you prevent it? Share your valuable experience with other moms here. Leave a comment below.